SORS: Detecting, attributing, and predicting the effects of climate change on biodiversity and health at actionable timescales

Onyekachi Ogunniyi - African Climate & Development Initiative, University of Cape Town, South Africa 

Short bio: Onyekachi is a Postdoctoral research fellow at the African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) with interest in climate change impact detection, attribution, and decadal prediction on climate-sensitive diseases to inform disease control and prevention strategies. She obtained her PhD in Public health from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa in 2023. Her thesis focused on the distribution, abundance, and infection rates of human schistosomiasis host snails in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. She made contributions in the scientific community through her publications in high impact journals on the effect of climate change on vector-borne diseases. She predicted the habitat suitability of human schistosomiasis intermediate host snails in KwaZulu-Natal province under different climatic scenarios.

Title: Detection, attribution, and decadal prediction of climate change impact on health outcomes

Abstract: Climate change impacts on health are increasingly apparent with regular exposure to intensive heat waves, surges and emergence of diseases, and mortality. Quantification of these impacts and tracing them to anthropogenic climate change has been difficult to measure but is essential in building evidence towards prioritising climate mitigation action. Onyekachi will present an overview of detection and attribution of climate change impacts on human health and its prospects on loss and damage calculations, risk assessment, and health system preparedness and response.